Yesterday, history was made by Rafael Grossmann, MD, FACS. He's a surgeon--and a Explorer. He's an innovator and has an informative TEDxDirigo 2001 talk where he also discusses more surgical innovations.

His Google Glass perched upon his nose, Dr. Grossmann endoscopically inserted a feeding tube into a patient while the procedure was streamed live to a Google Glass Hang-out.

He documented yesterday's surgery in his personal blog and I was able to speak with him today about his experience.

The patient involved needed a feeding tube (Gastrostomy) and we chose to placed it endoscopically, with a procedure called PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy. You can Google that to learn more…). Being the first time, I wanted to do this during a simple and commonly performed procedure, to make sure that my full attention was not diverted from taking excellent care of the patient.

I arranged for a Google Hang-Out (HO) between my Glass and a Google account I created ahead of time for this very purpose.

The connection is remote. The iPad used as a receiver was just yards away, but it could have been practically thousands of miles away.

Before starting the operation, I briefly recorded myself explaining the planned event, and once again, talked about the importance of not revealing any PHI.

I had Google Glass on at all times, with the HO active thru-out the procedure. The live video images that I saw thru Glass, were projected in the iPad screen, remotely. We kept the volume down on purpose. We tried to keep it very simple (the KISS principle!) and straight forward. As I said, even the procedure was a simple one.

I was able to show not just the patient’s abdomen, but also the endoscopic view, in a very clever, simple and inexpensive way. I think that there should be ways to directly stream the endoscopic view thru Google Glass ( My friend @Julianmb, also a Google Explorer, and his team of experts from @Droiders are working on that !) but this was a “Poor’s Man’s” set up…

The whole thing was fairly quick and went very well. We used “home-made” techniques, so the pictures and video are not optimal, but I think the point stands: Google Glass Streaming During Live Surgery…By a Glass Explorer Surgeon…IS POSSIBLE.

Intuitive simplicity

What struck me about Dr. Grossmann's comments was that he found the total experience simple and intuitive. His primary concern--first and foremost--was his craft as a surgeon and the safety of his patient. Further, he emphasized the importance of patient confidentiality, informed consent and no transmission of any patient identifying information.

"The entire procedure was unremarkable and Google Glass was unobtrusive and second nature," he commented. While this was his first procedure, he certainly hopes it's not his last. He concluded his comments with a distinct tone of optimism: "The role of Glass as a surgical and teaching tool is tremendous. And this is only the beginning. New applications--some we can't even imagine yet--will help transform surgery and the surgical experience."